


Where Do We Go From Here?

by AvatarAbby



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fighting, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-War, Rebuilding Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23548243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarAbby/pseuds/AvatarAbby
Summary: Even after the war is over and Adora reunites with Catra, some underlying issues remain, specifically between Adora and Glimmer. Can they work through their problems?
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 68





	1. The War’s Over (Right?)

**Author's Note:**

> This is totally a self-indulgent fic on Adora and Glimmer mending their friendship.

“Hey.”  
Adora was startled awake from her sleep, grabbing the knife under her pillow and pointing it around the room. One hand grabbed her wrist gently while the other hand cupped itself on her cheek.  
“It’s okay,” Catra said in a hushed tone, “it’s just me.”  
Adora sighed with relief, “oh.”  
“I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to let you know I’m heading out."  
The blonde sat up in bed and looked at her companion. “You don’t have to leave so early, you know.”  
The girl gave her a devilish grin. “I do if we don’t want other people to know we’re sleeping together.”  
Right. That was something the two hadn’t gotten around to telling the others about.   
“If it makes you uncomfortable, we can stop doing it. If that’s what you want.”  
“Adora, does me being here help with the nightmares?”  
“Well, yes, but-“  
“Then there’s nothing more to it,” Catra stated finally. “I’m staying here as long as you need me to. As long as you want me to.”  
Adora was touched. The part-feline had been coming over ever since she had first found out that her sleep was plagued with nightmares. And while the blonde couldn’t exactly explain why having Catra back in the same bed with her made her feel so safe and protected, it obviously did. The nightmares of Shadow Weaver seemed to dissipate and her mind became blissfully clear whenever the two where together.  
The dynamic between them hadn’t fully healed, not by a long shot, but they were working on it. Adora realized that there were times when she made Catra feel like second best, even if that wasn’t her intention, and Shadow Weaver had played favorites to a traumatic extent. But Catra also realized that being Shadow Weaver’s favorite wasn’t exactly easy for Adora either and she had also been hurt by the spell caster.  
That became obvious when the former force captain found her rival screaming in her sleep, tears streaming down her face.  
They had come to an agreement that night. The two would actually talk about their problems instead of just bottling it up. They refused to let it end up like what happened when Adora left the Horde.  
But some other things had occurred from that night. The two had started to date.   
Adora still was cautious about the idea. They were just starting to get to know each other again, and they had hurt each other so much during the war. But there was something about the other women that made it impossible to not want to be with her. And besides, she had dreamed of being with Catra in this way since they were kids. Why not take the leap of faith?  
The blonde walked her companion out of the room, telling her goodbye.  
“See you at the meeting in a little bit,” the part-feline asked, “right?”   
“Yep.”  
“Great,” she replied, kissing her goodbye.  
Adora watched her walk away, in a state of bliss until she heard a different voice, This one much more cold.  
“Are you kidding me?” The rebellion fighter turned around to see Glimmer, all ready for the day, standing angrily in the hallway.   
“Catra lead the Horde for months, held us captive multiple times, opened the portal that nearly killed us all. But the second that she joins the rebellion, you start making out with her.”  
“Glimmer, it’s not like th-“  
“But with me? With me, I say a few unkind things to you after years of friendship, and you can barely stand to look at me!”  
“You know it’s more complicated than that. You allowed Shadow Weaver to live here, you stopped including me in missions, you used me as bait-“  
“And that’s somehow worse than all Catra has done?”  
“Of course not. But Catra was willing to talk about her mistakes and share her part of the blame. You just play the queen card and say no one can argue with you!”  
“Well, that is what I am,” the leader of the rebellion argued. “I don’t have time for this right now. I’ll see you at the meeting.”  
Adora tried to stop her friend from leaving, but it was in vain. Glimmer had already teleported away.  
————————————————————  
“The Crimson Waste seems to be returning to normal activities now that the Horde has left the desert,” Huntara stated, the meeting in full swing. “Looting, trading, mistrust of everyone around. Like the good old days. We seem to need no aid from the alliance at this time.”  
Now that the Horde had finally been driven off of Etheria for good, the princess alliance had simply become a diplomatic league to determine which places on the globe needed aid the most, in whatever form needed, from food supplies to rebuilding homes. The war may have been won, but it was clear the damage from it was going to last generations.  
“Glad to here it, Huntara,” Glimmer said as she moves on to the next person at the table, to which she gave a glare. “Catra, how is the Fright Zone?”  
The former Horde leader cleared her throat and began reading off her notes. “Scorpia reports that shelter and supplies seem to be adequate for now. Injuries are being tend to as best we can. The thing that seems to be the major need is education tools and other things to try to reintegrate former soldiers back into society.”  
“Shouldn’t that be low on our list of priorities?” The queen raised an eyebrow.   
“In terms of physical necessities, yes. But everyone who has lived in the Fright Zone has been isolated from the rest of Etheria. They have no information about the way the outside world works outside of what they have been told. If we truly want to move on from the war, we can’t have people living as if they are still fighting it.”  
“You are asking a lot from the rebellion to help out the people that almost killed us,” Mermista added.  
“It’s not there fault,” Adora stated, her arms crossed. “They were brainwashed into it. All they ever were told was that the princesses were evil and trying to destroy the planet.”  
“But they were the one who tried to destroy the planet,” Glimmer butted in, “with the portal.”  
“And it was a similar situation when you activated the Heart of Etheria after everyone told you not to!”  
Bow stood up from his chair and attempted to calm the room. “Guys, maybe now is not the best time to get into this. How about we all just take a break and-“  
“Why!” Glimmer spat. “So Adora can have a chance to mess around with Catra?”  
Catra eyes went wide as the whole room turned towards her. She glanced in the direction of Adora to see what their next move would be, but the blonde seemed to be in a sense of shock.  
Mermista was the first to speak. “What are you talking about?”  
“Oh, you haven’t heard? The two are apparently best friends again, doing everything together. Talking. Hugging. Kissing.”  
“Stop it,” Adora said, her voice barely above a whisper.   
“What,” the queen of Brightmoon taunted, “are you ashamed of it for some reason? I thought you said everything was fine now.”  
“Stop it!” Adora grabbed Mermista’s trident next to her and slammed it on the table, causing it to crack in the middle. The embodiment of She-ra then turned around and went out of the room, slamming the door behind her. A second later, Catra left too, leaving the room in uncomfortable silence.  
————————————————————  
Catra hesitantly walked to Adora’s room in the castle, unsure how to approach the conversation about what had just happened. She knocked and entered the room to find Adora curled in her bed, crying.  
“Adora?”  
The blonde sniffled and opened her mouth, whispering, “I thought after the war was over, everything with me and Glimmer would be fine. That it would go back to how it was before she became queen. But it hasn’t.”  
“You both experienced a lot of trauma,” Catra said as she stroked her girlfriend’s hair, “that changes a person. The problems you two have are not going to resolve itself overnight.”  
“I don’t think they ever will. Glimmer doesn’t need me anymore. Just like you.”  
To the former horde leader, that statement felt like a knife in the gut. She hated herself for the pain she had caused Adora. She wondered how many days she had been just like this- alone and in bed and a complete wreck- because of the way she had treated her.   
But now was not the time to wallow in guilt for the things she’d done. Adora was hurting, and that was the main problem at hand.  
“Is there anything I can do for you?”  
The girl in bed turned away from the other, curling into a ball even tighter. “I think I just need to be alone right now.”  
Catra wanted to refuse, to sit with her friend and comfort her. But that wouldn’t help anything, so she said her goodbyes and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.  
Before she knew it, the former force captain was practically running to try to locate a room. Her connection to everyone was still so new and her relationship with Adora was so strained before that it felt like they were starting all over again. However, if Catra wanted to make this work, she was going to have to put Glimmer and Adora’s friendship back on track, to fix the problems she helped create.  
Once she found the room in question, she furiously knocked on the door and forced her way in once it was open.  
“We need to talk.”


	2. Setting The Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra teams up with an unlikely ally to try to repair a broken friendship.

Bow didn’t know what to think at first when Catra forced her way into his room. Although she seemed to be trustworthy now that the war was over, he couldn’t help but still be a little afraid of her. She certainly didn’t take any flack from anyone, and she was scrappy in a fight. Anything or anyone could set her over the edge, and Bow really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that.  
Bow hesitantly closed the door and turned around, only to find the part-feline already comfortable on his bed. “What is it exactly we need to talk about?”  
“Adora and Glimmer. You saw what happened at the meeting.”  
“I mean, yeah,” the archer said as he tentatively shifted his feet from side to side. “We all saw that.”  
“Well I think we need to help them become friends again.”  
Bow gave her a confused look. “How exactly are we going to do that? Last time I checked, their problems only started because of you and you’re meddling.”  
The former Horde leader sighed and crossed her legs. “Look, I know everyone here blames me for starting this whole mess and that’s fair, but trust me when I say this would’ve happened sooner or later. Problems don’t just appear out of the blue, there’s always some underlying cause.”  
“And what’s their underlying cause?”  
“I have some theories, but that’s for those two to figure out. We simply just need to get them talking again so they can.”  
“Why?”  
“Why what?”  
“Why are you doing this? Why even come to be for help in the first place?”  
Catra looked up, a hint of guilt in her eyes. “Because you were there for Adora when I wasn’t. I have no idea what her relationship with Glimmer was like before this, but you do. You were the ‘best friends squad’ or something equally stupid. I know you care about them both enough to team up with someone like me.”  
“It’s true, isn’t it?”  
“What is?”  
“You’re dating Adora, aren’t you?”  
“I....yes.”  
Bow looked her dead in the eyes. “She’s different now, you know. More self-assured, confident, ready to love and be loved. She isn’t just going to take whatever you give her this time. It’s not gonna be like it was in the Horde.”  
Two differently-colored eyes met his, a serious tone in them.   
“That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”  
And so, the two began to plan.  
————————————————————  
Glimmer wasn’t entirely sure why Bow wanted to see her in the dining room. He had seemed nervous when he knocked on her door and told her he had something very important to talk about. When the queen asked why they couldn’t just talk about it now, he made some vague excuse and ran away in the opposite direction of his room.   
At first, Glimmer was tempted to blow him off and stay hidden in her room. She was still reeling from the incident at today’s meeting and didn’t feel like talking right now. However, Bow wasn’t the type to dodge around things, and her curiosity was peaked.   
That curiosity had landed her here, in the dining room, several feet from Adora.  
The blonde froze in surprise. “What are you doing here?”  
“Bow said he had something important to talk about.”  
“Catra left me a note saying the exact same thing.”  
The two seemed to come to the same realization at the same time. Neither of them were showing up. This was all a ploy to get the two girls in the same room.  
The queen turned around and started walking to the door. “I have nothing to say to you.” Suddenly, she was hit by a blast of magic and a shield had come up, forming a circle around the two.  
Adora gingerly put her hand up to the barrier and sighed. “Looks like we aren’t getting out of here until you do.”  
————————————————————  
Catra and Bow sat together for a long time, watching the minutes tick by as they observed the situation going on in the dining room. It was times like these when the part-feline was grateful for the security cameras Entrapta had installed upon her return from Beast Island.  
“You sure this is gonna work?” Bow scratched his head and looked closely at the monitor. “It’s been over half an hour and they aren’t even looking in the other person’s direction.”  
“Trust me, Adora hates awkward silence. She will say something totally random, the two will start yell, which will eventually turn into talking and bam! Adora and Twinkle are together again!”  
“When are you gonna learn her name?”  
“Not the point, Arrow.”  
Bow choose to ignore her, turning his attention to this screen. “Let’s just hope your right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is really short but this really wasn’t my week. My family lost a long-time pet and I wasn’t in the mood to write anything extremely heavy. Hopefully I can get back into a better flow on and off AO3 next week.


	3. With Friends Like These (You Have All You Need)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer and Adora finally start to talk to each other about their friendship.

Adora couldn’t stand the silence. It had felt like forever since a word had been uttered between the two, and that was only for Glimmer to tell her that she couldn’t get the shield down. Every moment that passed felt like another knife to the gut, another reminder of how screwed up their relationship was.  
Eventually, the blonde couldn’t take it anymore and decided to say something.   
“Bow and Catra, huh. Never imagined the two of them would pair up on something.”  
Glimmer turned her body around and glared at her. “They wouldn’t have needed to if it wasn’t for you.”  
“Wasn’t for me?”  
“Yeah, you. It wasn’t my fault our friendship fell apart. You were the one who couldn’t trust me as a leader.”  
Adora stood up, defensive. “I did trust you! For a long time I gave you the benefit of the doubt. You wanted to keep Shadow Weaver here, fine. You wanted to use me as bait, fine. But you took every opportunity and threw it in my face!”  
“You see, this is your problem,” the queen said, waving her arms around. “You blame everything on anyone but yourself. You think that just because you are She-ra, you can fix everything. Fix the rebellion, fix the Horde, fix Catra.”  
“I’m not trying to fix Catra!”  
“Yes, you are. Why else would you be together?”  
“Because I love her!” Adora covered her mouth the moment she said it. She hadn’t admitted it to anyone else but herself. This wasn’t the way she wanted to tell Catra, but there was a good chance she was watching her right now, listening to every word.  
Glimmer didn’t seem to know what to say either. Shock covered her face and seemed unable to speak.  
“Look,” the blonde said, slumping down and attempting to avoid the elephant in the room, “I know I wasn’t always a great friend. I always tried to fix our problems quickly, instead of finding out why they occurred in the first place. But it really hurt when you trusted Shadow Weaver more than you trusted me.”  
“I didn’t trust her more. She just seemed like the answer to my problems. She taught me magic and offered advice. She believed I was strong, that I could be better than my parents. And, eventually, I began to believe it too. I needed her”  
“But don’t you see, that’s why I didn’t want you to be taught by her. That’s how she traps you. She finds your insecurities and makes you feel like the only way they will go away is if you stick with her.”  
Glimmer looked across the room to Adora. “What insecurity did she find in you?”  
A heavy breathe came first, and then the words came tumbling out. “You said that I always need to fix something. Well, you’re right. No matter how hard I try to let go, I always need something to repair in the quickest way possible. I think it’s because deep down, the thing I’m trying to fix is me.  
“In the Horde, I needed a team and status. In the Princess Alliance, I needed the power of She-ra. I’m useless on my own. Even when I left my life behind as a Horde officer, Shadow Weaver’s voice never quite got out. I didn’t fix every problem in the world, I was nothing.”  
The two sat in silence for a while, letting the words sink in. This time, it was Glimmer who made the first move.  
“I don’t blame you for my mom’s death. I hope you know that. I just miss her.”  
Adora’s eyes began to water. “I miss her too. I still can’t help but feel there was something I could’ve done more. Maybe I could’ve saved her.”  
Glimmer walks over to the other girl and sits down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Adora, listen to me. There was nothing any of us could’ve done. My mother made her choice and I know, wherever she is, she doesn’t regret it.”  
Those words bring a smile to Adora’s face.  
The two talk for a while longer, discussing how their relationship went so wrong and how they could fix it now. Eventually, the barrier lifted and the two were free to leave, but neither got up and walked away. They were no longer sticking together because they had no choice, they were sticking together because their friendship was worth fighting for.  
————————————————————  
“Listen, thanks for what you did today,” Adora said as she pulled back the covers, getting ready for bed.  
Catra shrugged as she got into the bed. “It was no big deal.”  
“It was a huge deal.  
“It was for selfish reasons, anyway. All that yelling was really starting to annoy me.”  
The blonde simply rolled her eyes and pulled the covers over her, checking once more that her knife was still under her pillow.  
“Are we gonna talk about what you said today in there?”  
Adora’s face went red with embarrassment. “Listen, you don’t have to say you love me back or anything. I was just in the moment and all flustered and-“  
“No, not that. I already knew that part. I mean, how could you not love me? I’m amazing. I mean the part about you thinking you are useless if you aren’t She-ra.”  
“Oh.” Adora was starting to wish that they had stuck with the ‘I love you’ conversation.  
“You know it’s not true, right?”  
“I’m starting to,” the blonde said, “but that’s been my mindset for so long. It’s gonna be a hard thought process to stop.”  
“I know, I just want you to know that none of us think that. Even sparkles would have to agree with me on that.”  
“She still doesn’t like you, you know. After we were done talking about our friendship, she gave me a fifteen-minute lecture on ‘hanging out with the wrong crowd.’”  
“Funny, could’ve said the same thing about her.”  
“Goodnight, Catra,” she said as she placed her head on the pillow.  
“Goodnight, Adora.” Within minutes, the part-feline’s companion was asleep, her breathe steady and relaxed. Catra turned her body away from her and whispered the words she wouldn’t dare say to anyone.  
“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s the end to my first multi-chapter fic! Not a hundred percent happy with how it turned out, but I am proud of myself for doing it. Never hurts to try something out and who knows, maybe I’ll do something like it again. Thank you so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I plan on having the next chapter up sometime next week. I’m not sure how long it will be, but I don’t imagine it going anywhere past 3 chapters. Hope you enjoyed the first installment. Comments/Kudos/ Constructive Critisism always appreciates.


End file.
